Hi Tim and fellow tweets,

I am really curious as to the status of Hermit Warblers in Western
Washington south of Kitsap County. It would really be interesting to know
how many "pure" Hermit Warblers are being found as one travels further
south.. I wonder how many HETOs (Hermit X Townsend's hybrids) are amongst
the population down there in Grays Harbor County and other places.

I can tell you from my experience here in the western part of Kitsap County,
specifically at Green Mountain the last four years, that I have yet to find
a pure male Hermit Warbler. Yes, I know, a few hardcore county listers have
probably "ticked-off" Hermit Warbler on their Kitsap County list in the
Green Mountain area, but I would speculate that they likely had a HETO. I
am sure I am in trouble now. George Gerdts and I had a female bird on May
22, 2005 that had all field marks that would indicate it was a pure Hermit
Warbler. All territorial male birds resembling Hermit Warbler that responded
to playback over these four years had some hybrid plumage characteristics.

There is an excellent article in the August 2001 Birding that deals with
HETO Warblers in the Pacific Northwest. Terrific pictures portray some of
the plumages of HETO warblers. Most obvious on the birds at Green mountain
were some degree of streaking in the mid and lower flanks and some degree of
yellow below the black bib for birds appearing to be Hermit Warblers.

Cheers and good birding,

Brad Waggoner
Bainbridge Island, WA
mailto:wagtail at sounddsl.com